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Monday, June 12, 2006

Speech/VoiceXML Merger Mania - Where's Google?

The Cisco announcement(s) last week add to the growing list of mergers/aquisitions involving vendors who are involved in the speech/VoiceXML industry. Here's the ones I can recall at the moment:

  • Cisco acquires Metreos and Audium
  • Genesys (Alcatel) acquires VoiceGenie Technologies
  • Cantata merges with Excel and Brooktrout which had acquired Snowshore earlier
  • Voxeo acquires Vocomo
  • HP acquires PipeBeach
  • Microsoft acquires Unveil and more recently picked up Vocalocity's VoiceXML technology
  • Genesys acquires Telera
  • Scansoft acquires Nuance, and many other firms.

I'm sure I'm missing some here, but absent from the list are Google and Tellme. Perhaps its time to resurrect the rumor of Google acquiring Tellme? :-)

by spkydog @ 6:56:00 AM   Bookmark and Share
4 comments links to this post

4 Comments:

At 10:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

TellMe has 3 big assets: a vxml interpreter, a hosting environment, and a customer base. In a build vs. buy decision for google, it seems a no-brainer. They've already got the best hosting environment in the world, and putting a few engineers on a vxml interpreter is no big deal. I doubt that Google's really going to buy into the directory assistance market to the tune of TellMe's asking price.

--Industry Bit Player

 
At 5:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Google is smart enough to know that there is no inherent value in an ASP with no technology of their own. I would speculate that Google is intent upon building an application that will greatly surpass a standard 411 application.

 
At 7:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seems like the click to call ads Google is testing could utilize VoiceXML.

On build vs. buy, timing probably plays a bigger role for them than $$. They've got plenty of cash to throw around, and its not like you are going to replicate what tellme has overnight, even if you are Google.

 
At 10:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

TellMe licenses its core technology from Nuance. If Google bought TellMe, they'd be doing same. Nuance also has a browser of its own. Google has plenty of ex-Nuance engineers on the payroll. They could get a vxml hosting environment up inside of a month, I'd bet, a lot cheaper than what they'd pay for TellMe.

Just because they have money doesn't mean they have to be stupid about it.

--IBP

 

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